welcome
Join us in celebrating the 2022 USA Fellowship awardees — the creative disruptors, social sculptors, and material vanguards who ignite our imagination beyond limits.
USA Fellowships are $50,000 unrestricted awards, with a year of financial planning, that recognize artists for their contributions to the field and allow them to decide how to best support their lives. We are honored and privileged to announce 63 thinkers and makers, who represent communities across 23 states and Puerto Rico, span every career stage and illuminate a breadth of artistic practices.
The USA Fellowship program has awarded over $36 million to more than 750 artists since 2006 thanks to our funders, who understand the value of supporting an artist’s livelihood. In addition to our traditional fundraising efforts, this year we also funded one award through our Show Up For Artists crowdfunding campaign, which raised over $50,000 from nearly 200 funders. We are grateful to our donors for continuing to show up and believe in artists!
2022 USA Fellows Geography
The 2022 USA Fellowships were generously made possible by:
- Sarah Arison
- Barr Foundation
- Bloomberg Philanthropies
- Builders Initiative
- Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
- Ford Foundation
- The Ford Family Foundation
- David Horvitz and Francie Bishop Good
- John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
- The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
- Steven H. and Nancy K. Oliver
- Opportunity Fund and Heinz Endowments
- Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation
- Rasmuson Foundation
- Reis Foundation
- The Rockefeller Foundation
- MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett
- The Fred and Eve Simon Charitable Foundation
- The Todd and Betiana Simon Foundation
- Paul and Annette Smith
- Walder Foundation
- Katie Weitz, PhD
- Windgate Foundation
- USA Ambassadors
- USA Board of Trustees
- USA Endowment Fund
- USA’s Show Up For Artists Campaign
After another year of challenges brought on by the pandemic, artists continue uplifting those around them and investing in their communities. The 2022 USA Fellows were selected for their remarkable artistic vision and their commitment to community – both within their specific regions and discipline at large.
These generative practitioners create objects, movements, narratives, spaces, and contexts that move our culture forward. Some are social sculptors and working within and for a community is essential to their process. They are driven by the belief that shaping a better world is first and foremost a group effort. Others are material vanguards, developing bodies of work that honor their personal histories through material and technical exploration. They transform the unconventional, overlooked, and mundane to build new worlds. And many are creative disruptors, those who work across mediums and genres to challenge established systems and norms, staying committed to their practices by resisting self-doubt and embracing play. All of these artists practice across these ways of working – unbound in their thinking and unbound by the status quo.
We hope you get to know all of these incredible makers, who each shared something surprising they have learned through their practice this year.
Architecture &
Design
ID: A portrait of a man sitting in an empty showroom, his right leg perched on a roll of blue paper and his arms resting on his thighs. He is dressed in a pink t-shirt, pink fur coat, black jeans, Space Jam Air Jordan’s, and New Era baseball cap.
Architect
Miami, FL
To be awarded such an amazing honor leaves me speechless. We all wish to be acknowledged and applauded for our work, and I am so very fortunate to gain that opportunity. Not bad for a kid from Chicago.
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ID: Portrait of an African American woman with short hair and brown skin. She sits leaning slightly forward with her arms crossed across her knees. She is dressed in all-black and is wearing yellow-rimmed glasses. She sits in front of a geometric volume in the background.
Architect and Public Artist
Montclair, NJ
My practice has evolved immensely this past year and throughout the pandemic. The separation from the regular routine of work allowed for a reflection on what had been important to me in my exploration of architecture, art, and public space. I took the time to make again. Making with my hands reminded me of how liberating and joyful it can be to allow the intuition in my hands to direct form.
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ID: A headshot of two people. The person on the left stares directly at the viewer with a stoic expression. They have short brown hair, dark red lipstick, and wear a nebulae shirt. The person on the right, seen only in profile, looks to the left of the picture frame, but not directly at the figure despite standing in close proximity. They wear wire-rimmed glasses and a button-up blue shirt with white dots.
Architects
Cambridge, MA
The term engagement implies both a design to find out more about an issue and an ethical obligation to become concerned and to act. It is to such engagement that we work so that media and institutional leaders treat the climate crisis like the existential emergency it is and take the ethical lead in responding to the collective emergencies. The bigger the platform, the bigger the responsibility.
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ID: A headshot of two people. Jennifer, an African-American woman with glasses and long natural locs, wears a black shirt and looks directly at the camera with her head tilted to the side. Tom, a white male with brown hair and a subtle beard, wears a black shirt and looks directly at the camera. Both are standing in front of a black background.
Installation Artists and Architects
Minneapolis, MN and Ithaca, NY
We’ve experienced firsthand the fragility of our connections to one another and the necessity of reinforcing those bonds in intentional and infrastructural ways. People in many artistic disciplines are rebelling against the inadequacy of current institutions, and creating new institutions that reflect their values. We feel incredibly fortunate to be part of various networks of solidarity through this period of extraordinary upheaval. We continue to explore our core concerns and make work that unsettles.
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ID: A portrait of a woman and man in the model shop of the SO – IL studio in downtown Brooklyn. The shop is full of white shelves and metallic tables, which contrast sharply with the two artist’s dark clothing. The two people look small amongst the busy shelving and bric-a-brac of the studio. The woman stands next to the seated man, her arm resting on his shoulder as they look in opposite directions.
Architects
Brooklyn, NY
Our most recent lesson: it takes a village! The pandemic taught us that only by building and fostering community can we weather uncertainty, as our small office pulled together creatively to maintain functionality. Quarantine also showed us all that space matters, that quality of space and access to air and light should be a right. These lessons converged in our involvement with the Neighborhoods Now initiative, through which we designed and installed public outdoor seating in the hard-hit neighborhood of Jackson Heights.
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Note: Panelists’ titles and organizations are reflective of their affiliation during the jury period in 2021.
Architecture & Design Panelists
Michelle Millar Fisher
Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Providence, RI
Carrie Norman
Partner at Norman Kelley
2018 USA Fellow
New Orleans, LA
Ernesto Alfaro
Planning Project Manager at LJA Engineering & Lecturer at Rice University
Houston, TX
Craft
ID: A headshot of a nonbinary artist with brown skin, large dark eyes and short curly hair smiles at the camera. Their right arm is crossed over their left shoulder and rests on their floral shirt. A grouping of candles, representing their ancestors, can be seen behind them.
Performance Artist and Sculptor
Oakland, CA
The physical nature of my work and its emotional intensity helped me recover from each of the five surgeries I had between 2020 and 2021. My work with unseen forces in my practice heightened my intuition about the inner workings of my body during moments of emergency and healing. Being an artist isn’t just about making art, it’s about how the practice sculpts you into a wiser, more courageous, compassionate, and flexible being.
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ID: A headshot of a man with tan skin and a reddish-brown full beard. His expressionless face is seen from a three-quarter view. He wears a grey kufi, and a navy-blue collared shirt with sky blue and olive green vertical stripes.
Ceramicist
Syracuse, NY
I am encouraged to witness a growing number of people working to contextualize Craft beyond materiality, natural history, tradition, and technique. Contemporary Craft is deserving of platforms for audiences to consider trajectories that push into new economic, cultural, social, and political territories. Complex and sophisticated craft traditions can be found in the most mundane of locales and made of commonplace materials. I hope we continue to flush out these wonders so they can optimally inspire.
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ID: A headshot of a woman with her dark hair pulled into a bun on her head. She wears geometric earrings and a denim jacket adorned with enable pins on the pocket. She has a tattoo of a spider on her neck, its web visible over her shirt.
Textile Artist
Long Beach, CA
The pandemic has been difficult for all of us, from the universal experience of prolonged isolation to the all-too-common loss of loved ones. Episodes like these can also serve as reminders of the importance of building community and cultural continuity. I feel more urgency than ever to use my work to hand down skills and traditions and to create connections between generations in my community.
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ID: A headshot of a woman standing in front of a stone wall. Although her body is turned away from the camera, she looks over her right shoulder to stare directly at the viewer with brown eyes. Her skin is dark brown and she has curly hair that falls just below her chin.
Multidisciplinary Artist and Maker
Boston, MA
This past year, through the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, I have offered educational programs in the woodshop for Black women. These initiatives create radically welcoming and authentically supportive experiences in spaces that have historically excluded many folx. From day one, I have been in awe of women’s immense capacity to give, love, and create – the depth from where the creation comes gives me hope for our future.
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ID: A portrait of a Chinese/Filipino individual standing in front of a white wall. They smile warmly at the viewer with their arms casually crossed at the chest. They wear a wonderfully bright colored, quilted jacket; striped red, yellow, and blue.
Weaver
Eugene, OR
Artists work to imagine futures, synthesizing the past with the present through material exploration. This is a messy process, which requires a unique balance of sincerity, deep contemplation, light-heartedness, and faith.
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ID: A black-and-white headshot of a man. The man looks directly at the camera and gives a warm smile on his mustachioed and lightly bearded face. He is dressed casually in a t-shirt and cap.
Multidisciplinary Artist
Los Angeles, CA
This year, I have been going to the beach a couple mornings each week to walk my chihuahua Miss Sprinkles. There was a unicycler that I kept seeing riding on the bike path, so I decided to put a unicycler on an art piece, respectfully. Taking time to be aimlessly present in my surroundings is a crucial part of my art practice.
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ID: A portrait of a man with a pale complexion sitting in front of a light grey background. He has short, cropped brown hair, and wears a blue silk button-down shirt.
Multidisciplinary Artist
New York, NY
For years I’ve focused on Palestinian embroidery, which is an emblematic Palestinian cultural export, and I consider it the center of my practice. That being said, in the past year I’ve endeavored to expand the materials I work with, turning to other, maybe lesser-known, Palestinian and Levantine craft practices for inspiration. I am currently developing works using three new media: metalwork covered with handmade glass-beads, a technique practiced in Hebron, Palestine; wooden objects inlaid with brass, mother of pearl, and various woods, a technique employed across the Levant; and basket weaving using wheat, which is found in Palestine and throughout the Levant. The widening of my scope across other crafts besides embroidery has been exciting and enlightening. It has solidified my commitment to craftsmanship and learning the cultural traditions of my ancestors.
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Craft Panelists
Jennifer-Navva Milliken
Artistic Director at Center for Art in Wood
Philadelphia, PA
Andres Payan Estrada
Curator of Public Engagement at Craft Contemporary at Craft Contemporary
Los Angeles, CA
Marilyn Zapf
Assistant Director and Curator at the Center for Craft
Asheville, NC
Dance
ID: A headshot of a woman with short, dark brown hair. Her shoulders are bare and she wears blue eyeshadow, coral lipstick, and regards the camera with a neutral expression.
Dancer and Choreographer
Brooklyn, NY
Although financial sustainability and retirement are real worries for me as a mid-career, mid-life, immigrant Latina artist, I was so grateful to come back to my practice with the dancers in the studio after having been in lockdown for a whole year. It strengthened my faith in the value of the power of working in community and the healing power of the presence of the body and touch. Dance and its potential for healing ancestral generational trauma and collective trauma feels more relevant and important than ever. Our connection to ourselves, our history, nature, the cosmos, and to one another is experienced in the flesh when we dance and sing and come together in the studio and in the ritual of theater.
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ID: T. Ayo, an African American gender-neutral person with red and orange locks, holds the hood of their black jacket over their head while looking into the camera confidently.
Dancer, Musician, and Educator
Chicago, IL
I believe it is essential to honor the legacy and traditions of creativity in movement and rhythm intricacies, while allowing space to be contemporary and relevant in performances and applications. As artists, we willingly make sacrifices and investments to bring healing, laughter, hope, and inspiration to our students, families, audiences, and the world. It’s important that artists continue to lovingly and powerfully nourish this commitment within ourselves and are viewed as creative laborers and leaders in society. Artists: you never know who will notice and invest in your worth ethic.
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ID: A portrait of a Black woman with an asymmetrical afro, standing in front of an apricot-colored wall. Her eyes are closed and adorned with purple eyeshadow. She appears to be breathing in, mid-inhale. Her fingertips lightly touch her neck, her face glowing, and her lips spreading into a big smile, giving a look of both serenity and joy.
Multidisciplinary Artist and Burlesque Performer
Chicago, IL
Over the past year my practice has taught me the value of unproductivity. That aimlessly wandering is a form of rest and that idleness isn’t a luxury but essential to my healing. I’ve learned to show up to the studio with no agenda and meet myself at that day’s edge. I’ve learned to give grief its space. I’ve learned when to push and when to find stillness.
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ID: A portrait of a woman seated in front of a white backdrop. She has medium brown skin, dark black eyes, and dark brown hair. She looks at the viewer, her body leaning forward and her hands clasped together below her chin. She is wearing a black button-down shirt and multi-colored beaded hoop earrings.
Transdisciplinary and Dance Artist
Mni Sota Makoce, MN
Before the dual pandemics, I and the artists I work with were already struggling with racism, bias, and phobias which were making our working and living environments ungrounding and unsafe. Since the onset of the pandemics I have been driven to make space, hold space, and offer ideas on how we can rest in movement and find refuge for that rest. This has been critical in order to survive the onslaught of bigotry and violence so we can be creative. What I have had to do this last year is to set aside my ambition to produce work in the ways I had in the past. I had to really leave the commodity culture that producing work for stage is rooted in. I had to set aside the demands I made on myself and those I work with and focus on what we needed as individuals so we could come together. We spend our time in a practice of grieving, condoling and resting. We share this practice. And I have let go of trying to meet the expectations of those who think I should be doing otherwise.
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ID: A tan person with short black hair and a mole just above the left side of her lip looks into the camera. She wears a dark blue shirt speckled with white dots.
Choreographer and Transdisciplinary Artist
St. Paul, MN
I am thinking about how we shift from ideas of land-owning to collective land-belonging; and I’m curious how cultivation of plants informs human body-based artistic practices, what kind of movement and technologies might emerge, how humans can practice sharing space with plants and each other, and how plants can be a reminder of what’s at stake globally.
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ID: A portrait of a woman sitting on the floor in an interior space, in front of a couch. She sits with her legs extended in front of her, crossed at the knee, and her hands in mid motion at her waist. She has red curly hair with silver roots, blue framed glasses, and pink lipstick. She looks directly out at the viewer, with a small smile.
Experimental Choreographer
San Juan, PR
I still get emotional watching my rehearsals. Bodies moving so generously and committed to what I propose is still a wonderful feeling. I am thankful that after all these years I find it adventurous and a little scary. Making a new piece gives me a chance to keep on exploring something like risky behavior, even if it is private.
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ID: A portrait of two seemingly identical men in an elevator interior. Both men are Black with short hair and matching attire. They both wear large reflective glasses, blue tux jackets trimmed in black, black bow ties, white dress shirts, and blue jeans. The man on the left rests his extended right arm on the elevator wall and his left hand at his navel. The man on the right, holds his right bicep. Both men regard the viewer with cool sartorial looks.
Dance Performance Artists
Boston, MA
This year continues to bring about some of our most important decisions we have faced as artists. What do we tackle today in comparison to pre-pandemic? How do we use dance to show our strength and to address our fears? Our belief will always be that art unites us all. But in order to unite we must continue to address the unaddressed, admit what we ignore to move forward in growth.
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ID: A headshot of a woman standing in front of a white backdrop. She looks directly at the viewer, mouth slightly agape, and a burst of curly brown hair piled on top of her head. She wears an orange hoodie over a leopard print top.
Dancer and Choreographer
New York, NY
My art-making begins with a devotion to the moving body.
I don’t know where it ends.
Dance is my refuge, my drug, my practice. After these past two years, I’m not sure what and whom it’s for.
It is, and must continue to be.
That, I do know.
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Dance Panelists
Rob Bailis
Artistic and Executive Director at The Broad Stage
Santa Monica, CA
Darrell Jones
Performer, Educator, and Movement Researcher
Chicago, IL
Lauren Slone
Director of Grants and Research at MAP Fund
Brooklyn, NY
This year I have been trying to cultivate more patience in my practice. One afternoon late in October, I was walking along the Bronx River and came upon a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) standing in the river. I told myself to stand and watch the heron, even if I got uncomfortable. I ended up watching it and taking notes on its movements for about twenty-five minutes before continuing on my walk. It was a riveting experience and one I am very grateful for! Thank you heron!
—
JJJJJerome Ellis
Experimental Composer and Poet
Artists are archivists, translators, and inventors who are expanding and extending research into something that can be felt. Artists are excellent at modeling potentials for change that can be reproduced and scaled up.
—
Salome Asega
New Media Artist
The hardest part about making art is creating. Any idea you have, no matter how big or small, just create, create, create.
—
Robert Andy Coombs
Fine Art Photographer
Disabled people are leading survival praxis in apocalyptic times. Through media, art, technology, and community, we have been using online spaces to teach, organize, and disseminate knowledge. Many of our tools and techniques enabled the broader world to connect and socialize during the pandemic. Now, we are losing access to remote participation as the world attempts to pivot back to “normal.” We resist the idea of normal and follow our comrades in disability culture by insisting on radical accessibility.
—
Critical Design Lab
Critical Design Collective
I really enjoy making things. I’ve always known that, but I forgot how important it is to my process — to create, design, and build the things I want to see in the world. I always hope that my joy is discernible in the details of the work when others encounter it, but I have to remember to protect the part of the process that is joyful for me, whether or not others can access it.
—
American Artist
Artist and Educator
Film
ID: An Algerian-American woman sits in darkness under a bright spotlight. Her face glows under the illumination as she looks directly into the camera. Her head is crowned with curly brown hair, framing a stoic and determined face. Her body is posed with her hands clasped in her lap.
Documentarian
Bridgeview, IL & Chicago, IL
This year, nineteen months into the pandemic, I’ve learned to find a new pace and slower rhythm in my practice. I’ve learned that some burdens are not meant to be held alone, that in confronting the scarcity complex that encircles ego and unlearning a culture obsessed with single-authorship and hero’s journeys, I could share in the abundance and collective healing that comes with co-creating work. With co-creation comes a new methodology for artistic process: one that prioritizes relationships and “moving at the speed of trust,” as adrienne maree brown puts it; that is accountable to the community and creates a benefit to them; that grows locally and is rooted in intergenerational community knowledge and expertise; and that is grounded in collective care.
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ID: A black-and-white portrait of Elegance Bratton shot from a low angle. He wears a straight pink bob and brushes his hair. The background of the photo is blurred so that his face is fully in focus.
Writer and Director
Baltimore, MD
One surprising thing I learned this year is the value of resilience. Resilience comes from overcoming past difficulties in life. This pandemic has been tough, no doubt, but I’m grateful for the struggles I’ve been through. There was a time when I tried to downplay or evade my past difficulties in life, and after this year, I’ve learned that those difficult moments gave me the strength to persevere. I kept making my films and I’m proud of the resilience I’ve shown. I’ve learned that it is important to push no matter the obstacle and that effort can inspire others.
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ID: Portrait of a woman with long, black hair and brown skin. She smiles, almost as if in mid-laugh. Her head thrown slightly back, her eyes half open, and her body tilting left. Her right hand is raised up to her shoulder, mid-motion, giving the image an even more candid feel. She wears a bright yellow, off the shoulder, African printed top.
Writer and Director
Brooklyn, NY
One thing that surprised me this year was the reminder of how powerful seeing one’s own image is. I take that for granted because I’m in the rare position of seeing lots of African films, so it feels like everybody has the same opportunity. And while things have changed a great deal since I was a child, seeing thoughtful, hopeful, and affirming African stories still isn’t as widespread or common as it could and should be, and when it does happen it always packs a punch. I am constantly humbled to meet people who watch my film and feel “seen” for the first time. What that does for their health and psyche, that feeling and knowledge, never grows old.
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ID: A portrait of a Filipino American with dark brown hair and large tortoiseshell glasses. She looks directly at the viewer, smiling, and resting her head in her right hand.
Filmmaker
Brooklyn, NY
Although I was fortunate to have a fairly successful debut narrative feature, the next film I want to make is very ambitious: a magical realism pop music opera set in Japanese-occupied Philippines during WWII. Initiatives like USA allow someone like me to continue to pursue writing and researching this film while still being able to support myself.
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ID: A portrait of a woman seated on an orange velvet couch. She looks out at the viewer, posture erect and poised. Her dark hair is pulled back, with wisps of curls radiating around her face. She wears long earrings and a sleeveless textured white top that is splashed with bursts of ambient sunlight.
Filmmaker
Miami, FL
My connection to Nature has deepened, and become my supreme teacher. Second to that is Toni Morrison. In her words, “I was always a little bored by demonstrations of evil. It always has this top hat, and a cape, and a cane. [But] Goodness never has anything, because it doesn’t want anything. Can’t use anything. It’s just there.” May our art continue to expose evil, but valorize even more the simple splendor of Good.
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Film Panelists
Adele Han Li
Festival Manager at Slamdance Film Festival
Los Angeles, CA
Nehad Khader
Festival Director at BlackStar Projects
Philadelphia, PA
Justine Nagan
Executive Director/Executive Producer at American Documentary/POV
Oakland, CA
Media
ID: A portrait of a person from the midriff upwards. They have brown skin and a stoic expression as they stand amongst green foliage. Their eyes are obscured by dark sunglasses and framed by braids that hang loosely around their face. They wear a long-sleeve, black shirt that features two small beefy figures.
Artist and Educator
New York, NY
I really enjoy making things. I’ve always known that, but I forgot how important it is to my process — to create, design, and build the things I want to see in the world. I always hope that my joy is discernible in the details of the work when others encounter it, but I have to remember to protect the part of the process that is joyful for me, whether or not others can access it.
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ID: Portrait of an Ethiopian-American woman sitting on a brownstone stoop on a sunny Brooklyn day. She is looking away from the camera and wears a green puffy jacket with her hair in a ponytail.
New Media Artist
New York, NY
Artists are archivists, translators, and inventors who are expanding and extending research into something that can be felt. Artists are excellent at modeling potentials for change that can be reproduced and scaled up.
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ID: A collage of three headshots. 1) Aimi Hamraie, an olive-skinned Iranian transmasculine person with short dark curly hair, wears rectangular glasses, a plaid jacket over a blue collared shirt. 2) Jarah Moesch, a person with short brown hair and glasses wears a patterned shirt and looks into the camera. 3) Kevin Gotkin, a white person with a brown beard and brown glasses, looks back at the camera over their left shoulder. They wear a grey beanie hat, a black mesh shirt, and a light denim vest adorned with colorful feathers on the back.
Critical Design Collective
Nashville, TN, Troy, NY, and Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY)
Disabled people are leading survival praxis in apocalyptic times. Through media, art, technology, and community, we have been using online spaces to teach, organize, and disseminate knowledge. Many of our tools and techniques enabled the broader world to connect and socialize during the pandemic. Now, we are losing access to remote participation as the world attempts to pivot back to “normal.” We resist the idea of normal and follow our comrades in disability culture by insisting on radical accessibility.
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ID: A white man with sandy blonde hair, curved eyebrows, and a full red-and-gray beard. His head tilts up at the viewer with slightly raised brows. He is smiling with his mouth closed showing his dimples.
Media Artist
Berwyn, IL
It’s cool that you want to make the art in your museum accessible for disabled people, we really appreciate the gesture, but it would be a lot cooler if you were to feature our art as well.
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Media Panelists
Carlos “L05” Garcia
Complex Movements
2019 USA Fellow
Los Angeles, CA
Legacy Russell
Associate Curator, Exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem
New York, NY
Sally Szwed
Curator
Brooklyn, NY
This past year, through the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, I have offered educational programs in the woodshop for Black women. These initiatives create radically welcoming and authentically supportive experiences in spaces that have historically excluded many folx. From day one, I have been in awe of women’s immense capacity to give, love, and create – the depth from where the creation comes gives me hope for our future.
—
Alison Croney Moses
Multidisciplinary Artist and Maker
One surprising thing I’ve learned through my practice this year is that it isn’t nearly effective enough in scale both regionally and globally when considering the cumulative impact of climate change on our communities. These are hard truths to learn after years of dedication to each project but this growth, I’m learning, is what makes a life’s work measurably effective.
—
Jordan Weber
Regenerative Land Sculptor
I know my practice is not always legible, and I disappear into libraries or classrooms or get lost exploring different media, but that is authentic to the way that I think and work. And it feels incredible to be seen.
—
Nicole Marroquin
Interdisciplinary Artist, Educator, and Researcher
I continue to be surprised by how poems can come from anywhere and, in particular, from conversation. I used to believe writing was a completely solitary act, that it had to be, if it was going to be “true” or “pure” art. Now I believe in friendship and community as vital, as deeply essential to my creative practice and life. I can’t write without talking to and dreaming alongside other writers.
—
Chen Chen
Poet
We’ve experienced firsthand the fragility of our connections to one another and the necessity of reinforcing those bonds in intentional and infrastructural ways. People in many artistic disciplines are rebelling against the inadequacy of current institutions, and creating new institutions that reflect their own values. We feel incredibly fortunate to be part of various networks of solidarity through this period of extraordinary upheaval. We continue to explore our core concerns and make work that unsettles.
—
Dream The Combine
Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers
Installation Artists and Architects
Music
ID: A portrait of a man standing on a Harlem street in autumn. His brown skin is illuminated by the sunlight, giving his face a gentle yet passive expression. His hands are clasped under a charcoal-colored overcoat that rests over his shoulders and his olive-and-white striped shirt.
Experimental Composer and Poet
Virginia Beach, VA
This year I have been trying to cultivate more patience in my practice. One afternoon late in October, I was walking along the Bronx River and came upon a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) standing in the river. I told myself to stand and watch the heron, even if I got uncomfortable. I ended up watching it and taking notes on its movements for about twenty-five minutes before continuing on my walk. It was a riveting experience and one I am very grateful for! Thank you heron!
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ID: Portrait of a man standing in front of an odaiko. The drum fills the right half of the image, and the man rests his head and back on the instrument. His distinguished short, grey hair is pushed upward by a brown headband. His muscular arms rest at his midriff and hold two wooden mallets.
Taiko Artist
Honolulu, HI
This past year has been a time of reflection. People have suffered and are experiencing difficulties in the current pandemic. Although taiko is known for being exciting, energetic, and high volume, it has a softer side and can convey many internal feelings. I’d like to create music that offers a glimpse of optimism — that nature and its wisdom will prevail.
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ID: A black-and-white headshot of a woman with long dark hair, black-rimmed glasses, and a textured headband. She faces away from the camera, to the right of the image, with a soft smile. A single light source hits the left side of her face, creating a sharp contrast with the dark background. In the bottom right corner of the image she holds a butterfly with her right hand.
Composer and Electric Komungo Performer
Bridgeport, CT
The pandemic has presented me with the opportunity to create therapeutic music performance for community pain and has made American audiences more receptive to the ritual of music performance.
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ID: A portrait of a woman standing in front of an enormous tree holding an Apache Violin. She looks directly at the viewer, holding the instrument on her left forearm in front of her torso. She has long dark hair, wing-tipped eyeliner, and colorful patterned garments that both clash with and complement one another.
Musician and Composer
Brooklyn, NY
[My practice] always reminds me of all the energies of how alive we are with our music, art, dance, theater, writing, filmmaking, building, and beyond. Beginning with just sparks of ideas and inspiration from generations ago of family, friends, nature, all creatures that surround us that gets to grow and grow until we’re all twirled up into creative and collaborative societies that are listening together to the world around us each day.
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ID: A portrait of a brown-skinned man sitting with his hands resting on a 1951 Gibson ES-150 electric guitar. He sits in shadow in front of a wood panelled wall, with specks of sunlight punctuating the image. He looks out at the viewer from behind black horn-rimmed glasses with an expressionless face. He has short dreadlocked hair and a small chin beard.
Musician and Composer
Altadena, CA
I never know what I’m looking for. And I’m mostly okay with that. This year, I realized how much I rely on that sense of uncertainty to make the work. You never know where you’ll end up. Embrace the unknown and the possibilities are infinite.
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ID: A portrait of a man in a seal skin jacket on the shores of Aak’w Kwaan Territory. His face is stoic, as he looks directly ahead. Under his fur hood is a tuft of black hair peeking out, and his face has dark stubble around the chin.
Indigenous Musician
Bethel, AK
Music and dance are keys or tools for us to keep our culture alive, our language alive. To save our people. We’re doing this to save our lives and using art to try to bring a light to the darkness. It’s amazing to me how much our cultural practice brings healing and joy in the dark moon times.
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ID: A headshot of a Native and African American woman, wearing a Senegalese braided hairstyle. She wears pink lipstick, wampum shell earrings, heishi shell necklace, and green-patterned blouse.
Vocalist, Songwriter, Composer, and Educator
Brooklyn, NY
One surprising thing I learned through my practice this year has been the value of patience, reflection, and community. We suffered great losses during the pandemic. Yet somehow we managed to continue creating work in different ways, continuing in a way that heals, including ourselves. In my opinion, musicians became essential workers. Music healed us in more ways than I ever imagined or expected. Social media became our connecting friend, our catalyst for activism, social justice, kindness, and community support.
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ID: A portrait of a man standing in front of a cement wall with grey paint peeling off the surface. The man stands center-left of the image, looking directly at the viewer, with his hands clasped behind his back. He has curly blonde hair and brown eyes. He wears a blue button-down shirt and denim jeans.
Pianist, Composer, and Electronic Musician
Brooklyn, NY
As an improvising artist, the isolation of the past year due to COVID-19 reaffirmed the essential importance of a present audience in my creative process. The transformational power of music has everything to do with immediate communication and being in community with the people who are receiving the work. I am excited to be in the presence of everyone again as things open up.
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Music Panelists
Taja Cheek
Associate Curator at MoMA PS1
Brooklyn, NY
Gene Dobbs Bradford
President & CEO at Jazz St. Louis
St. Louis, MO
Susie Ibarra
Composer, Percussionist, and Sound Artist
2019 USA Fellow
New Paltz, NY
Theater &
Performance
ID: A portrait of a woman with dark brown skin wearing a vibrant red dress. Both her attire and her perfectly coiffed hair are carefully, thoughtfully, constructed; which contrasts playfully with her candid pose and warm smile. Her hands are captured mid-motion, blurry as they reach out towards the camera.
Artistic Leader, Theatremaker, and Filmmaker
Ashland, OR
I spent the last year reflecting on our field’s interdependence and the collective power that we artists have to evolve the theater industry. I spent most of the past year saving my 85-year old institution by adapting my skillset to focus on raising the necessary resources and bolstering the entire field to join me in the work. When our theaters were shuttered, I followed my fellow theater artists as we turned to other forms of expression: digital, immersive, XR, and through those forms I was able to connect and collaborate with my fellow creators all over the world. None of that would have been possible if it weren’t also necessary. With so much loss during this past year because of the pandemic, the privilege to pivot was a gift I could not take for granted.
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ID: A headshot of a woman with olive skin and short, dark hair that is cropped close at the sides. She is looking up at the viewer with a small smile. She wears a black leather jacket and stands in front of a grey wall.
Writer and Performer
San Francisco, CA
Last September, I escaped Zoom and opened my show in a real theater. Audiences made the effort to show up with their proof of vaccination, and their masks made me realize that sharing theater always was and always will be a human necessity. Software can never replace the experience of being in the room.
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ID: A close up of a man’s face with olive skin. His gaze is cast to his right, pensive, as he looks out from clear colored glasses. His dark hair and beard stubble are well groomed. Although you cannot see the man’s body, you get glimpses of his grey t-shirt, and the tops of his crossed forearms.
Director and Artist
Los Angeles, CA
As I wasn’t on tour or in rehearsals over the past year, I spent a lot of time walking around my neighborhood of Echo Park in LA. I saw patterns and presences I hadn’t fully attended to before, and so I began walking with my camera. In particular, I began making photos of vehicles in which people in my community live. They’re not houses, but are homes, and in many cases are covered in art. The walks helped me remember that we artists make work wherever we are with whatever we have on hand, and there are many more of us out there than we imagine.
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ID: A headshot of a person standing in front of a white wall. They look directly ahead with an expressionless face, perhaps just the hint of a smile. They have dark curly hair and beard stubble. They wear a black peacoat, with a graphic printed shirt peeking out around the collar.
Artist and Designer
New York, NY
I’ve learned, more than ever, that my artistic practice is a survival technique. It is a language that has brought me closer to the earth and to strangers who appreciate and understand it. My practice is the biggest part of myself. My work is my breath, my activism, my reason for existence.
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ID: A headshot of a young Cherokee woman with long straight brown hair. She leans against a brown wooden wall, smiling out at the viewer. She’s wearing a gray shirt with a green cardigan.
Actor, Playwright, Artistic Director, and Advocate
Cherokee Nation, OK
As a Native actor and playwright, the film and theatre community only inquire about my availability when they need an Indigenous voice. 2021 was my first time receiving commissions where I had the luxury of writing about anything I wanted and not specific requests for Native content.
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Theater & Performance Panelists
Lane Czaplinski
Director of Performing Arts at Wexner Center for the Arts
Columbus, OH
Carra Martinez
Director of Live America at Fusebox Festival
Austin, TX
Tavia Nyong’o
Professor at Yale University
New Haven, CT
I’ve learned, more than ever, that my artistic practice is a survival technique. It is a language that has brought me closer to the earth and to strangers who appreciate and understand it. My practice is the biggest part of myself. My work is my breath, my activism, my reason for existence.
—
Machine Dazzle
Artist and Designer
The pandemic has been difficult for all of us, from the universal experience of prolonged isolation to the all-too-common loss of loved ones. Episodes like these can also serve as reminders of the importance of building community and cultural continuity. I feel more urgency than ever to use my work to hand down skills and traditions and to create connections between generations in my community.
—
Melissa Cody
Textile Artist
Throughout the years engaged in the harvest of fibers and clay bodies, I’ve come to attain a commitment well-regarded to understanding what it means to have permission from the Land to extend upon the use of its resources. Moreover, this year, within a reflection around loss and grief, an altar was conceived as a payment and acknowledgement to teachers we’ve lost along the path we sustain. As a result, I’ve come to understand a process of self-cultivation as a significant exercise in a practice to maintain a constant reflection around presence and growth.
—
Jorge González Santos
Installation Artist and Educator
Artists work to imagine futures, synthesizing the past with the present through material exploration. This is a messy process, which requires a unique balance of sincerity, deep contemplation, light-heartedness, and faith.
—
Jovencio de la Paz
Weaver
Traditional Arts
ID: A seated man with his jarana in front of a white brick wall. His dark hair appears pulled back and he gives a passive stare from behind blue framed glasses. His pose is relaxed, his arms hang gently around the jarana, and he gives a very small smile.
Maestro Sonero
Los Angeles, CA
We had a highly challenging year where we were asked to practice physical and social distance but thanks to technology, creativity, and arts, we were able to stay close to each other and, in some cases, feel even closer than ever.
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ID: A candid portrait of a Black woman wearing a tan cap and glasses with colorful quilts out of focus behind her. She holds a quilt to her chest with one hand and gestures with the other as if in the middle of a conversation.
Narrative Quilt Artist
Summerville, SC
After shutting down creatively during the early days of the pandemic, I have found my voice on cloth and am again making narrative quilts. Creating quilts for two Women of Color Quilters Network shows — on George Floyd and COVID-19 — helped me process this tumultuous time and reconnect with my artistic practice.
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ID: A headshot of a woman of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. She looks directly at the viewer and smiles. Her long silver hair falls past her shoulders. She wears earrings and a necklace made of Wampum, crafted from the shells of the Quahog clam.
Haudenosaunee Raised Beadwork Artist
Stevens Point, WI
Connection is strong medicine. With the potential to heal across time and space, it can doctor through soft touches, sweet smells, and aching memories. It is the connection between my beadwork, the wisdom of those who came before, and contemporary issues that fuels my work.
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ID: A collage of three headshots. 1) a person with bright pink hair and aviator-style glasses touches their face pensively, showing off a ring on one finger. 2) a person with long dark hair and stylish glasses wears a striped turtleneck shirt and looks into the camera. 3) a person with a dark beard and dark curly hair. The tint of the picture gives off a warm, pink glow.
Skyborgs (Sociocultural Cyborgs for Nature and Collective Liberation)
Rio Grande Delta Carrizo Comecrudo Territory Maiza, Brownsville, TX
Watch out. The plants are back.
Las Imaginistas has been infiltrated by plants in their heart chakra. They are transmitting messages to other skyborgs (social cyborgs working on behalf of the interlinked natural world). The time has arrived to ACTIVATE.
Black Jaguar, Ocelot, and Murciélago are networking a root system of liberation throughout Maiza and beyond. With the plants at the forefront, they will collectively deliver intergalactic peace.
The plants are interlinked
Interlinked
The plants are interlinked
Interlinked
The plants are interlinked
Interlinked
Program commence.
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ID: A headshot of a man with a tan felt hat, black rimmed glasses, and a salt and pepper beard. The image is cropped close to his face with his eyes holding a focused gaze. He stands in a field at golden hour.
Traditional Appalachian Musician
Lexington, KY
Art connects emotion to experience, self to other, person to culture. The pandemic is not over, but the world already knows a profound new grief, one that is shared but not processed. Artists, who are expert at connection, can guide our communities toward healing and toward empathy. For medical reasons, my partner and I have basically lived in quarantine since March 2020. We have a large chosen family, and these relationships are vital to our lives. But what I have been surprised by is that, despite the loss of these visits, we are not depressed, and we are not lonely. We have used this time to grow the health of our creative practices, and art has proven itself to be the best company we keep. We feel closer to our community, and to each other and ourselves, than we ever have — because our imaginations are set to the work of offering a healing place. Artists are expert at connection because the artistic process itself is a process of connection. I thank the lord for that.
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ID: A headshot of a brown man with two brown braids on either side of his head. He looks directly at the viewer with a stoic expression. He is wearing a jean jacket and a yellow beaded necklace. On his lapel is a small red button with the Oglala Sioux Tribe flag on it.
Interdisciplinary Artist
Rapid City, SD
More than ever, my art practice has been an important factor in my survival this past year. I’ve used my art to process. I’ve also used my art as a way of speaking up for and with my community.
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ID: A young Yup’ik man smiles holding up a fish as he stands in a red skiff with blue water and snow-capped mountains in the background. He has dark long hair and a beard and is wearing a plaid shirt.
Culture Bearer, Artist, Designer, and Educator
Sitka, AK
Information about Alaska Native traditional skin sewing and tanning techniques is found almost exclusively in ethnographic museums and documents that derive knowledge from Native communities. Yet the creative control, voice, and audience for these resources are not Native. This past year I realized that the Indigenous lived experience can only be accurately conveyed directly by those with collective cultural memory. When revitalizing cultural practices, it is vital that we are in the driver’s seat.
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Traditional Arts Panelists
Maya Austin
Director / Program Weaver at First Peoples Fund
Sacramento, CA
Jennifer Joy Jameson
Program Manager and Media Director
Alliance for California Traditional Arts
Pasadena, CA
Selina Morales
Independent Folklorist
Philadelphia, PA
Visual Art
ID: A headshot of an Indigenous woman with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. She leans forward looking off to the distance with a big, toothy grin. Her pose is playful but observed. She wears a black shirt, black-and-white printed scarf, and vibrant red lipstick.
Painter
Chicago, IL
My attention span favors those who tell tales. I must live to be slow-walked through anecdotal observations, personal accounts, and the retelling of family histories. This is something that my practice needs and has been suffering for in isolation.
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ID: A Polaroid of a shirtless man seen from the shoulders up. His skin is lit in stark contrast, with the left half of his face in shadow. He has short brown hair and a goatee. His chest and shoulders are spotted with illegible tattoos.
Fine Art Photographer
Miami, FL
The hardest part about making art is creating. Any idea you have, no matter how big or small, just create, create, create.
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ID: A portrait of a man sitting outside on a city block. The man has light brown skin and a full head of lustrous silver hair. He smiles at the viewer, his pose is relaxed with his hands in his lap. He wears a white t-shirt and a necklace.
Installation Artist and Educator
Borikén, Puerto Rico
Throughout the years engaged in the harvest of fibers and clay bodies, I’ve come to attain a commitment well-regarded to understanding what it means to have permission from the Land to extend upon the use of its resources. Moreover, this year, within a reflection around loss and grief, an altar was conceived as a payment and acknowledgement to teachers we’ve lost along the path we sustain. As a result, I’ve come to understand a process of self-cultivation as a significant exercise in a practice to maintain a constant reflection around presence and growth.
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ID: A portrait of a Black man standing in front of a white backdrop. He stares directly at the viewer with his left fist raised in front of his face, almost in a boxing position. However, instead of boxing gloves, his hand is adorned with silver rings and on his wrist he wears several bracelets made of plastic, beads, threads, and various fibers. On his face he wears a look of gentle concentration. His hair is greying on his head and goatee.
Sculptor, Painter, and Musician
Atlanta, GA
During the last few years, I had to find a deepness within myself. These last few years have been hard for everyone. My music touring came to a stop because of the pandemic, and that allowed me to focus on making art without interruption. For an artist like me, being isolated was hard, but not new. This is my life. I spent a lot of time with just my imagination. I tried new things in new places. I painted a lot. I found ways to reinvent myself in my 70s and I like the new me.
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ID: A fifty-year-old Latinx person with glasses squints at the viewer. Their salt-and-pepper hair is in two long braids, and they are wearing a t-shirt with Huitzilopochtli on it.
Interdisciplinary Artist, Educator, and Researcher
Chicago, IL
I know my practice is not always legible, and I disappear into libraries or classrooms or get lost exploring different media, but that is authentic to the way that I think and work. And it feels incredible to be seen.
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ID: A headshot of a Black man with short locked hair wearing a grey shirt and a light green preppy jacket.
Conceptual Artist
Vernon Rockville, CT
It’s not exactly a revelation, but our collective global experience with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 has further reminded us how much we need the arts in order to survive.
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ID: A portrait of a man standing in a studio space. He stares directly at the viewer, his face neutral, one eyebrow slightly raised. He has short hair, a neat beard, and wears a black jacket, which is buttoned at the top.
Regenerative Land Sculptor
Cambridge, MA & Des Moines, IA
One surprising thing I’ve learned through my practice this year is that it isn’t nearly effective enough in scale both regionally and globally when considering the cumulative impact of climate change on our communities. These are hard truths to learn after years of dedication to each project but this growth, I’m learning, is what makes a life’s work measurably effective.
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ID: A portrait of a man in a studio, surrounded by paintings. The man has brown skin and short grey hair. He sits in a black wheelchair, looking up at the viewer from behind black-rimmed glasses. He wears an amused expression and holds a pile of papers. He wears a black t-shirt that reads “History of US Presidents” with several “White man” emojis, a “Black man” emoji, and a “clown” emoji.
Painter
Wilmington, DE
I figure if I can seduce [the viewer] with color, I can get them to ask a question. If I can get them to ask a question, I can begin to have a dialogue.
From interview by the Delaware Art Museum
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Visual Art Panelists
Betty Avila
Executive Director at Self Help Graphics
Los Angeles, CA
Jessica S. Hong
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo, OH
Candice Hopkins
Curator, Writer, and Researcher
Albuquerque, NM
Writing
ID: A portrait of a queer Chinese American standing in front of a large beige apartment building with many windows and balconies. His hair is dyed an orangey-blonde. He wears clear-framed glasses, a dark purple button-down with gray polka dot pattern, and a gray blazer. His facial expression is gently joyful.
Poet
Waltham, MA
I continue to be surprised by how poems can come from anywhere and, in particular, from conversation. I used to believe writing was a completely solitary act, that it had to be, if it was going to be “true” or “pure” art. Now I believe in friendship and community as vital, as deeply essential to my creative practice and life. I can’t write without talking to and dreaming alongside other writers.
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ID: A headshot of a bald Black man wearing a black hoodie. He looks towards the viewer, with a stoic expression. Behind him are glimpses of trees and mountains.
Writer
Oxford, MS
It probably sounds reductive or corny, but I’ve never known how dependent I am on hearing other artists create, revise, and talk, often insufficiently, about their works in progress. I’ve needed this every year of my life, but I’ve needed it more, having lost so many folks I love these past two years.
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ID: A headshot of a black, masculine-of-center queer person with a faux hawk style haircut. She is wearing short sleeved black coveralls with her arms folded. She is smiling.
Poet and Writer
Pittsburgh, PA
Quarantine time passed in a way I have never experienced, producing a strange, wonderful inattention to each day’s progression. Inside of that unstructured time, my mind was allowed to wander or to think of nothing at all. It was that wandering nothingness from which language emerged as if not coming from my thoughts, but from elsewhere.
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ID: A portrait looking up onto the face and torso of a Black man, as if the camera were situated from slightly below. The man has short-cropped silver hair on his head and silver stubble on his face. He gives a big smile that is almost as vibrant as his red Adidas tracksuit.
Poet
Los Angeles, CA
[A surprising thing we learned during our practice this year was] when we won an Emmy. We have done our work on an SSI budget!
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ID: A portrait of a woman standing in a sunny canyon. She has dark wavy hair pulled back under a blue bandanna. A lock of turquoise-highlighted hair peeks out from under the bandanna.
Poet
McAllen, TX
Deep engagement with my emotional, spiritual, & intellectual life motivates my artistic practice, to know something important I did not know when I started the poem. Sometimes this is an aesthetic discovery & often it is a philosophical question or a response to feeling institutional inequities. Sometimes my own drafts wound me because the topics I feel most compelled to write about wound me. It is not until I stick them out in revision that the artistic practice delivers me into a new realm of understanding, into conocimiento.
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ID: A headshot of a Filipino American woman with straight, shoulder-length black hair and a black top. She looks toward the viewer with her brown eyes and smiles at the camera.
Multigenre Writer
Boston, MA
I know from being an athlete and musician that sustained, regular practice is important, but I could never apply this to writing. In July, my friend Calvin Hennick and I started writing together on Zoom for the first 90 minutes of the day. Some days are hard, but on most days, it is the best part of my day. I am most myself when I’m writing, and every day, I give myself this gift first.
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Writing Panelists
Rasha Abdulhadi
Executive Director at Split This Rock
Washington, DC
Allison Escoto
Head Librarian at Center for Fiction
New York, NY
Molly Kleiman
Director at Triple Canopy
New York, NY